Walsh stars in Sky Blues first win
Westfield Matilda striker Sarah Walsh has starred for Sky Blue FC in a 2-0 win over Chicago Red Stars in the Women’s Professional League in the USA.
Walsh opened the scoring for Sky Blue to set up the much needed win for the New York-based side, their first win of the season against a sluggish Chicago side that was minus Walsh-s Matildas teammate Heather Garriock.
Walsh benefitted from a superb pass by fellow Australian Collette McCallum in behind the defence and Walsh made no mistake slipping the ball past Chicago-s Swedish keeper Caroline Jonsson.
The Matildas striker was replaced after 65 minutes and the Sky Blue-s wrapped up the match in the 78th minute, when Natasha Kai scored. McCallum played a full game.
Walsh said after the match how relieved she was the team finally got a win after five games.
“Collette McCallum and I know each other-s game inside and out so the ball through was perfect,” Walsh explained. “We-ve had three or four games without a goal, so it was just a huge relief to get a goal and to be up. To be honest, I was surprised we were up.”
“I-ve never been so relieved, to have my club win a game. We worked hard for it and we deserved it.”
Garriock is set to miss a few more weeks after picking up a knee injury, while fellow Matilda Lydia Williams has to settle for a place on the bench as behind Jonsson-s understudy.
Lisa De Vanna and her Washington Freedom teammates had a bye on the weekend.
Meanwhile Kate Gill set up the opening goal for Carina Holmberg, as Sunnana SK recorded a big 4-0 win over Stattena IF in the Swedish Women-s League.
Gill-s pass four minutes after half time, created the chance for Holmberg and she made no mistake and that was followed by a Linda Fransson hat-trick as Sunnana ran riot.
Gill played a full game and is a regular starter in the side, with Sunnana now going on a four-game unbeaten run, which has included three wins.